Cool Google Tricks To Improve Your Searches!

Today everyone is mad about shortcuts. Even when they Google a query, they look for some Google knacks to make their searches rather quick.

3.5 billion Google searches per day clearly states Google’s influence in everyone’s life. With these huge numbers, can anyone think about how they can be more productive with their searches? Yes, there are some hacks that do exactly the same and contributing to make this per second score even higher!

In this article I am going to outline some of these Google search tricks that you can use to save your time and efforts both. Excited?

Yes, you should be!

So let’s have a look at this list of Google search tricks and tips!

1. Make private searches:

When you make a search on Google, it by default creates a demographic history about you depends upon your search behaviour which is not at all acceptable by our privacy enthusiasts. Hence private searches came into the scene as they don’t allow search engines to track your ip address or your location or anything. Private search doesn’t save your search history. Startpage (Known as lxquick as well) is an example of this private search that shows searches from Google but keep your privacy safe.

2. Use quotes(“”) to search for a specific phrase:

Searching revolves around keywords. The more specific you are with your search query the more relevant results you’ll get. So brainstorm what you are looking for and type in the relevant keywords within double quotes(“”). When you type a specific phrase within these double quotes, Google will fetch results having the exact phrase in it even the order of the words is not altered. For example, if you type ”you’re busy” in search bar, this Google tip will yield results having you’re busy in it. This kind of search query will discard all other alternate results even, you are busy is also not considered as a result.

3. Search by location

With this Google search bar trick You can target a specific location (city name or postal code) at the end of your search query and can have results related to that location only. This pretty much overrules the default behavior of Google search and calculate location specific results using your computer’s current IP address.
For example “cafes and Lounges V6E3J7” will give you a list of cafes in Vancouver, Canada.

4. Use search operators to make powerful searches

OR – This search operator is much like “either-or” concept of English. For example if you type in “buy cheap Nike shoes or Reebok”, it is basically a combined search query for both “Buy cheap Nike shoes” and “Buy cheap Reebok shoes”. Google will list the results having any of those terms in it.

And – This when used within a search query provides results containing both the terms in it. If you make a search for “buy cheap and blue Nike shoes”, Google will enlist all the results that contain both cheap and blue words.

Asterisk(*) – Asterisk is used to take any variation of a phrase when used within double quotes. Replace a word in your phrase with Asterisk(*) and get a full list of all possible variation of that search query. Suppose you have a movie in your mind but don’t remember the full name of that movie. Don’t worry just type whatever you have in your mind and place Asterisk on other places. Google will give you all the possible combinations relevant to your search query. Try this.Type ”A * to remember” and have all the possible variations of the phrase in your search results.

Minus(-) – Here’s a hidden Google trick, add minus before those words you want to eliminate from your search results. This trick is useful when you are searching for a term that yields lots of results and most of them are not of your interest. So just place (-) minus sign in front of those keywords and get a filtered result for your search query. See below.

5. Google search trick to track your orders!

With this Google trick you don’t need to go to specific website to track your orders. Simply type your UPS, USPS, Fedex or any tracking ID into the Google search bar and get the tracking details of your package.

6. Use “site:” to search within a specific website!

There might be the chances when you want to make a search for specific service or content within a particular website. Use of this Google trick can be helpful in such cases. Type “Site: website name” and your search term to look for and get results from the mentioned site only not from the entire internet.

For example “social media site:princekapoor.com” will enlist only that content which is related to social media from princekapoor.com and rest all the content will automatically get discarded.

7. Search for similar websites!

This trick is relatively new and could be used by everyone if they knew it existed. This trick is a powerful Google trick that gives you an option to browse some new sites as well. Take the example of Princekapoor.com. You like it very much and you want to explore more sites similar to that. To do so simply follow this syntax:

“related: princekapoor.com”

As a result of the above query, you will get a link to Tinder plus you’ll find links to other similar sites as well. Try this on your own.

8. Find specific files

When you need to find presentations, PDFs, drawings or other files whose extension is known on internet then filetype is your helping hand. This will let you find specific files on the internet instead of getting content or a website.

For example filetype: pptx single sign on will give you the results for PPTs on single sign on subject.

9. Use Google search bar to Know what links to what!

Do you want to know who links to your website? Or do you want to know where your backlinks are made? If yes then “link:” is there to help you. Just type “link: your webpage” and get a list of all urls that have a link back to the mentioned webpage.

Example: “link:www.princekapoor.com”

10. Search for terms in pages’s titles!

Do you want to find a webpage having some specific keywords in it’s title? Now with intitle search operator you can find it within seconds. For example type “intitle: cyber security” and all the search results will cover those content that have cyber security in their titles.

Just like intitle, there are more search operators as well that narrow down your searches to the body of a content,headline or even to a URL. I am sure you’ll find them extremely useful. They are:
Allintitle: “allintitle: India cyber security” will show the results having all three words in the titles.
intext: This search operator will make a search for a specific word phrase within the body of a content.

Inurl and allinurl: These search operators are used to limit your searches with the specified terms only in URL. By this Google trick you will get most useful results quickly. For example “inurl: Android” will show results having android in their URL and similarly “allinurl:google android phone” will show results of those URLs having these terms in it.

11. Use Google search bar for synonyms!

(~) tilde symbol in front of any word will widen your searches as it will show up the results for the synonyms of that particular word as well. And use (+) plus sign to remove the synonyms from search results.

12. Google search trick to browse offline websites!

Do you know Google keep a cached version of all the websites scanned by its crawlers? Yeah, it does and that’s why we can see them even if their server is down for some time. “cache: “ is the search operator which is used to browse a website even when it’s server is facing a down time.
Type “cache:https://www.princekapoor.com/” and you’ll get a cached version of the website even if it is offline.

13. Know your ip address!

14. Search the Web by specific Country, Time or Location!

At your Google search interface, you must have noticed “tools” underneath the search bar. These tools are meant for you to filter your search results based on some specific criteria like country and time. This limits your search results and gives you better researches based on your requirements.

15. Search Images by specific Size, Color, Type, Time or Copyright

Well, this is another amazing feature Google offers to its users that filters out the specific information people want to know. This feature is really useful when your search term has more than one forms.
For example: when you look for the images for SEO. click on the image tab under the search bar and click on tools.

These tools give you more refinement options for an image such as size, color, type, time, usage rights, and an option to show the sizes of each image. You can then filter your choice for an image like small or large size, grayscale or full color images, clipart or line drawing or it’s label for reuse.

16. Use Google search bar to get results from Top level domains!

Top level domains are the extensions that come after a domain name like .edu, .com, .org, .au and many more. Use “site:TLD” to target a specific top level domain in your search results.
For example Android site:edu will yield results from .edu domains only.

In the same way use (-) minus sign to remove any unwanted site from your search results. Type
– site:website.com and you won’t see that website in your search results.
Example:- Android -site:wikipedia.org will not show a wikipedia link in its search results.

17. Convert numbers to words and solve calculations

It is useful when you have a really large number and can’t get what it is. Don’t worry just type your number in Google search bar like this “1098762341= English” and you’ll get your numbers in word form.

18. Set timer!

Now set a timer when you are reading a book, writing an essay or for a nap between long work hours by using Google search bar. Just type “timer” or “set timer” in search bar and create a timer for your own purpose. You can also utilize the option of “stopwatch” with this timer.Now it’s time for some fun on Google! Try some Fun Tricks here:

19. Do a Barrel Roll!

Type “Do a Barrel Roll” (without quotes) in your search bar and hold your Desk for a second as this will give a circular roll off your screen.

20. Tilt your screen with Askew!

21. Google space!

22. Google Gravity!

Google Gravity is literally fun as it shatters the search engine into pieces down the line. You can drag and drop these pieces around your screen to amuse yourself. Check here!

23. Play atari Breakout on Google Images!

Give yourself a break from searching and type “atari breakout” in Google image to destroy the bricks by using a ball.

24. Google Underwater!

Give your screen a look in which the Google search boxes will appear floating under the water. Try here!

Hence these are some handful tips for everyone who spend hours on Google search. Search smarter and quickly find what you want to know using these and many other search tricks that I might forget to add in this article. Share what you feel about them in the comment box below.

Prince Kapoor is freelancer seo consultant based in Jaipur, India. He has consulted various brands like Adobe, Canva, LoginRadiu and Stillio. With his vast experience of SEO, and digital marketing, he can help your business grow to next level. Hire Your Trusted SEO expert now.